In Memoriam—The late great poet Robert Creeley gets his due in a reading this weekend at the Anasazi Fields Winery in Placitas. Creeley died earlier this year of pneumonia following a distinguished career in which he was widely recognized as one of the most innovative poets of the last half of the 20th century.

The Unexpected Man at the Cell Theatre

By Steven Robert Allen

At the top of my Christmas wish list is a piece of imaginary technology I like to call the Thought Machine. It basically consists of a set of headphones connected to a kind of ray gun. When you aim the gun at people and press the trigger, it shoots out an invisible ray that allows you to listen to their thoughts. I'm hoping that 20 years from now I'll be able to pick up one of these babies at Target for $39.95. In The Unexpected Man, a play currently running at the Cell Theatre, playwright Yasmina Reza uses a similar sort of theatrical technology to crack open the silent thoughts of her two characters.

Popejoy Hall

By Eva Dameron

Pianist Awadagin Pratt is known for challenging the classical musical establishment by forcing his audiences to rethink the way music is heard. He will open the 2005-2006 New Mexico Symphony Orchestra season with performances of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Mahler's Symphony No. 5 at UNM's Popejoy Hall on Friday, Sept. 16, through Saturday, Sept. 17. Come on down and check out an Albuquerque fave. Tickets range from $10 to $60. Call for times. 881-8999.

Harwood Art Center

By Eva Dameron

You may unknowingly be part of Alexander Ferguson's new exhibit, the Albuquerque Pedestrian Project at the Harwood Art Center (1114 Seventh Street NW). He tapes processed film to the ground in certain areas of the city, creating photographic images without a camera. Elements, people, animals and time create the image rather than light. Ferguson also made sound recordings at each site. You can hear these through headphones mounted on the walls of the exhibit, placed beside each corresponding photograph. A reception for the exhibit will be held Friday, Sept. 16, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. in the Harwood's North Gallery. Runs through Sept. 28. 242-6367.

An interview with Salman Rushdie

By John Freeman

In the last decade Americans have watched dumbfounded as the Cold War evolved into the War on Terror. How did this happen? Why did it happen? And who is to blame? Perhaps the most qualified novelist in the world to address these questions is 58-year-old Salman Rushdie. Indian by way of Pakistan and Anglo by way of boarding school in England, Rushdie is a quintessential east-west soul. Born into a secular Muslim household, he experienced the wrath of Islamic fundamentalism in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini put a bounty on his head for the perceived slights against Muslims in his comic novel, Satanic Verses.